It seems that Iran once again took its own road to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States on tentatively ending the conflict. President Trump loudly announced that the signing ceremony would take place on Sunday, June 14th but Iran had other ideas.
Details in the MOU that are coming out include the opening the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of American’s expeditionary force. However, Iran is already saying that they retained the right to administer traffic in the Strait and we know what that means.
At this point, we are scheduled to be back to where things were before President Donald Trump decided to go to war to achieve something else. At the same time, we are still very far from any kind of justification for the 14 members of the arm forces killed, several hundred wounded, the expenditure of at least 29 billion by the military and the long-term economic consequences across the globe that are projected to amount to more than a trillion dollars.
Also, the MOU involves both Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon is a major reason why the Israelis partnered with the United States to attack Iran. This part of the understanding is already in serious jeopardy because Israel’s interests differ significantly from the US which makes it an unreliable collaborator. In addition, Trump and Netanyahu are said not be getting along lately.
The next 60 days will be crucial as Trump’s most important reason for going to war was the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear capability. Iran’s concerns are sanctions, frozen assets and reparations. None of these matters are resolved and are still on the table. It is time for the Art of the Deal to kick in.
Over 6 years ago, on January 3, 2020 Trump wrote a tweet stating that “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.” It appears that his words in 2020 are coming true in 2026 as Trump’s desperation to get out of the mess he made by his decision to go to war is showing in the appearance of administration’s acceptance of Iran’s terms.
It is pretty clear from the words of President Trump that his administration is resigned to the idea that Iran can get 300 billion dollars for reparations, plus 24 billion in frozen assets, plus most everything else it wants. More noticeable is that the abdication is going to leave the United States in a much worse position than before the war.
There are also feelers out about Iran having enriched Uranium as long as it is for peaceful purposes. To think that this is just the beginning of the 60-day negotiation period and it already looks like we have lost.
When President Barack Obama negotiated the deal that Trump later threw out, the agreement led to the removal of 97% of Iran’s enriched Uranium and the 3 percent left was designated for the production of energy for peaceful purposes. Mechanism were set-up for international monitors to inspect and report on what Iran was to do with the nuclear material that was left.
The agreement included the unfreezing of 1.7 billion of Iran’s assets and their release. I remember the complaining screams of Donald Trump because 400 million of that amount was returned in cash.
Now, compare that to the 324 billion dollars to potentially be awarded to Iran along with the 29 billion dollar cost of the war and the trillion dollar hit on the world economy. What a terrible deal.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
